Friedrich with Dortmund in 2014.
|
|||
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Manuel Friedrich | ||
Date of birth | 13 September 1979 | ||
Place of birth | Bad Kreuznach, West Germany | ||
Height | 1.89 m (6 ft 2 1⁄2 in) | ||
Playing position | Centre back | ||
Youth career | |||
1992–1995 | SG Guldental 07 | ||
1995–1998 | Mainz 05 | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1998–2000 | Mainz 05 II | 55 | (11) |
2000–2002 | Mainz 05 | 63 | (8) |
2002–2004 | Werder Bremen II | 13 | (2) |
2003 | Werder Bremen | 1 | (0) |
2004–2007 | Mainz 05 | 116 | (8) |
2007–2013 | Bayer Leverkusen | 147 | (11) |
2013–2014 | Borussia Dortmund | 11 | (1) |
2014 | Mumbai City | 14 | (1) |
Total | 420 | (42) | |
National team | |||
2006–2008 | Germany | 9 | (1) |
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
Manuel Friedrich (born 13 September 1979) is a German retired footballer who played as a central defender.
He amassed Bundesliga totals of 258 games and 16 goals over the course of 12 seasons, representing in the competition Werder Bremen, Mainz 05, Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund.
Born in Bad Kreuznach, Friedrich started playing football at SG Guldental 07, making his professional debuts with 1. FSV Mainz 05 which he had joined in 1995 – the club was then in the second division. However, he had to wait until 26 February 2000 to make his competition debut, in a home match against FC Energie Cottbus.
In the following two seasons, Friedrich was a defensive stalwart, scoring an astonishing eight goals – no penalties – in the latter as Mainz finished fourth, just one point shy of promotion.
Those stellar performances attracted attention from the Bundesliga, and Friedrich signed with SV Werder Bremen, but his time there would be anything but successful as he only appeared once in the league in one and a half years combined, the final seven minutes of the 4–1 home triumph against FC Schalke 04 on 23 August 2003. In that second season in the Hanseatic city he also featured for the reserve squad, in Regionalliga Nord; 2002–03 had already been totally lost to an anterior cruciate ligament injury.